group questions

Hello All!

My name is Colin and I'm writing an undergraduate thesis on Last.fm. Part of the thesis is investigating groups on Last.fm and I would like to gather some information on this one because I find the involvement steady and the topics covered broad (and personally relate to our theme). If you have some time and would like to respond to these questions, I would be very grateful.

These questions are part of a larger research project on ideas of community and Last.fm. The goal of the research is to determine how users conceptualize their involvement with the website and investigate their notions of community in online environments. I am researching these ideas through participant observation on the website, being a member of this group, and collecting information from fellow group members such as yourself through the public forums. If you respond to this forum post, please be aware your answers will be linked to your username, by which I will cite you, and be in public view. I will not use any information you supply for any purposes beyond this research, nor will I share the list of respondents with anyone. (However, you should be aware that information transmitted over the Internet is not secure and may be intercepted by third parties.) This research is in no way affiliated with the developers of Last.fm. If you have any questions, please feel free to message me on Last.fm, or for more information visit my blog at fitzmix213.wordpress.com.

How often do you use the website and in what ways? (not just the scrobbling plugin)

How many groups do you belong to? Are you active in any of these groups? How many?

Why did you join the group “I Hate Music Snobs”? How would you describe your involvement in this group?

How would you describe a "music snob"? and why do you hate them?

Do you think membership to this group says something to the larger Last.fm community? If so, what?

Do you consider the group “I Hate Music Snobs” to be a community? Why or why not?

Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the social networking aspects of the site? Why or why not?

Please feel free to add anything else you feel is important.